


Time Travelling Idiots {rewrite!}

by KayTh3Great



Series: Idiots In Love [4]
Category: Invader Zim
Genre: Dib - Freeform, Established Relationship, It's confusing, M/M, Older Zim, Rewrite, Time Travel, Younger Dib, ZADE, ZADF, ZaDr, Zim - Freeform, im sorry, invader zim - Freeform, irkens are like cats, iz - Freeform, older dib, younger zim, zim can purr
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-22
Updated: 2020-07-22
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:55:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,673
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25436524
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KayTh3Great/pseuds/KayTh3Great
Summary: Dib woke up in his room, wow he hadn't been in there in a while. It looked... different somehow, though. Almost like... oh god please no. He looked up to see his thirteen year old self standing on his bed, pointing at him with his mouth open. Dib put his head between his legs and sighed loudly, fighting off the impending headache, "How did I forget about this???"Meanwhile, a younger Zim is looking on in wonder at his older, much taller counterpart. Said counterpart was weighing the pros and cons of kicking his younger self through a wall.A messed up portal experiment results in Zim and Dib being sent eight years into the past. They need to figure out how to get back to their own time without causing too much damage to the past, but when is anything ever that easy when it comes to these idiots?Can be read as part of Idiot With a Cause or as a one-shot.~-~-~-~Decided that since I'm rewriting the main story, it couldn't hurt to go back and do this one too since it was my favorite.
Relationships: Dib & Zim (Invader Zim), Dib/Zim (Invader Zim)
Series: Idiots In Love [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1675153
Comments: 10
Kudos: 127





	Time Travelling Idiots {rewrite!}

_Dib chuckled nervously as he looked down at the very clearly dangerous experiment gone wrong below them, "That's not what it's supposed to do."_

_Zim was quickly scrolling through data on his tablet, "Wow, thanks for the input. Here Zim was thinking this was our end goal."_

_"It should have worked. Any idea what went wrong?"_

_"If I knew, it would be fixed already."_

_Dib crossed his arms and sighed, trying his best to stay calm as the thing they'd spent all their time and resources on for the last two months rapidly lost control. They'd been working on a portal they could use to go between the base and their space station, making it easier to keep the Voot cruiser charged in case of emergency. Instead of showing their intended destination, however, the portal was just an angry mess of red that definately did **not** look safe. _

_The frame started sparking, the lab starting to shake as the structural integrety of their project quickly declined._

_Dib almost fell off the catwalk they were standing on, managing to catch himself on one of the railings, "Turn it off Zim!"_

_"I've been attempting to, it's not working!"_

_"Try something else then!"_

_"Oh, brilliant advice! Let me just unplug it from the wall!"_

_Another tremmor happened, this time successfully knocking Dib off the platform. Zim immediately jumped off in a panic, trying to grab Dib before his fragile, squishy, body came crashing to the floor. He shot down a bit too fast though, crashing into Dib mid-air. The forward momentum resulted in both of them being shoved right into the portal._

_As soon as they went though it shut off, leaving the lab silent and empty._

Dib woke up in his room, wow he hadn't been in there in a while. It looked... _different_ somehow, though. Almost like... _oh god please no_.

He looked up to see his thirteen year old self standing on his bed, pointing at him with his mouth open. Dib put his head between his legs and sighed loudly, fighting off an impending headache, "How did I forget about this???"

He lifted his head after a moment to look up at his younger self again, who was still just standing there with his mouth open.

Dib rolled his eyes before resting his chin on his knee, "Stop that, you'll catch flies."

That broke the young Dib out of his shock as he quickly did a pointless roll of of his bed to grab a cheap looking gun of some kind that he probably got from the back of a cryptid magazine, " _I'm not gonna fall for one of Zim's tricks again! A robot only works once, alien scum!_ "

Dib pinched the bridge of his nose, sighing as he did his best to keep from screaming at himself. Thankfully, after the first incident of a 'time traveller' (a robot Zim had made to trick Dib into a trap with), he'd come up with a way to make sure that if he ever actually came back in time he'd know it was him.

He sat up straight, leaning his weight on the palm of his hand as he looked up at young Dib again, "24."

" _Thats- That's the number!_ ", young Dib lowered his gun a bit before quickly raising it at him again, " _But how do I know you didn't just torture me for it in the future?!_ "

Dib rolled his eyes before saying the second time travel number he'd thought up, "16."

Young Dib's eyes immediately lit up as a wide smile quickly formed on his face. He set the gun back down on the desk and started bouncing on the balls of his feet, " _So you're really me?! How far into the future are you from? Are we a famous paranormal investigator yet? When do we finally stop Zim and give him to the government?!_ "

Dib shot to his feet at the mention of the alien's name, worry setting in.

 _Oh no, Zim! If I'm here then_ -

Meanwhile, Zim woke up on the floor in his livingroom, his younger self poking him in the face and Gir climbing around on top of his back.

"Oh, _that's_ how this happened.", Zim growled into the floor before carefully pushing himself upwards, knocking Gir off in the process.

" _Whee! Again, again!_ ", Gir screamed as he tried to climb back on, only for young Zim to grab him by the leg and throw him into the kitchen.

Zim stood up and stretched, not taking his eyes off of the tiny goblin in front of him.

Young Zim pointed, his antennae raised in confusion, " _You-!!_ "

Zim rolled his eyes at him, "Yes, yes, I'm you but tall, get your rambling out of the way."

" _How is it possible for the mighty Zim to grow this much?! You are very clearly Zim, but such height rivals even the Tallest! And these... height shoes! They increase this length even more! How do we achieve this?! Tell mee-_ "

"Gravity. It's much lighter here than on Irk so-"

" _Why are you speaking in the **disgusting** human language?_", young Zim interupeted, his face scrunched, " _No self respecting invader would use such a language unless communicating with the **wretched** inhabitants._"

Already getting irritated by this interaction, Zim just rolled his eyes again before continuing in irken, "How many years have you been on Earth?"

" _Almost two Earth cycles._ "

So, about what Zim had expected based on how the room looked. Zim brought a hand to his chin, thinking about his current situation as his younger self walked around him in circles to get a better look. While he _did_ remember this happening, and knew how they got back, he had no idea what happened between points a and b. He only breifly interacted with himself, so anything beyond that was lost on him. Best he could think to do at this point was meet up with Dib and go from there.

He made his way over to the disguise hatch and got out a wig and some contacts, putting them on and wishing he'd stayed in the habit of keeping his current ones in his pak. He hadn't made any changes to them until some point between year three or four, and the originals hurt like hell to wear. As he made his way to the door, his younger self tried to block his path. Emphasis on tried, since he was only really just a bit taller than Zim's knee.

" _Wait!_ ", young Zim screamed, his arms stretched in an attempt to block his older self, " _Zim would like to assist with your plans! Are you here to destroy the hideous, big-headed Dib-beast before he can cause more issues? Have you come to destroy the disgusting human learning facility? Allow Zim to assist!_ "

Zim looked down at his younger self, seriously contemplating just kicking him in the squeedily-spooch and leaving. But no, sadly, he couldn't do that. He didn't remember it happening and he didn't want to mess around too much in case it changed something.

So instead, he crossed his arms and looked down at the annoyance blocking his path, "Go back to working on your current machine, finish it quickly. It's important."

Young Zim nodded at him before running further into the house and going back down to the lab.

Dib found it pretty funny that he didn't actually remember this very well. Yeah, he remembered it happening, but for some reason he only really remembered a few details about it.

You'd think helping your future self get back to where they came from would be something impossible to forget, but appearantly enough stuff happened in the eight year period of time inbetween that this was just an insignificant blink in history. Something he _did_ remember was meeting up with Zim at their hill; the one he'd found Zim on after the alien had officially been exiled.

For some reason that interaction stood out in his mind, not that he could actually remember what happened in detail. His younger self running around in circles and talking non-stop also wasn't helping him any. He just wished his younger self would shut up for five seconds, and was desperately fighting with the urge to throttle the little-

His train of thought was cut off by his younger self gasping and hiding behind a tree. Ahead of them, Zim was standing rather impatiently and rubbing at one of his contacts.

Dib felt relief almost immediately at the sight of his alien, running towards him as his younger self remained behind his tree in alarm.

"Zim!", Dib exclaimed as he ran up to the alien and tightly hugged him, lifting him and spinning him in as circle as he placed a kiss on his cheek, "I was worried you'd mess something up before I found you."

Zim rolled his eyes as Dib set him down again, his arms around the human's neck as the continued hugging. "Oh ha ha. Yes, _Zim_ is the one to mess things up.", the alien rolled his eyes, "I had to deal with the tiny nuisance that is my past self. Rest assured, I have made sure he will remain in the base."

Dib laughed a bit and pointed over his shoulder, "I wasn't was lucky. Though, I guess _I've_ always been the smarter one out of the two of us. Even if I had told him to stay home we both know I wouldn't have."

Zim flicked Dib in the nose and stuck his tounge out, causing Dib to laugh more as they finally separated.

Once he was done laughing, Dib straightened his back out and put his hands on his hips, "Ok so, how did we deal with this? Because I don't actually remember."

Zim rolled his eyes and groaned, "Great, so you don't know either? Zim was under the assumption we spent the whole situation with your large-headed child self."

"Hey, I grew into it!", Dib exclaimed, taking a second to get past the insult and realize what Zim had said, "And yeah, we do, but I don't actually really remember anything that happened."

Young Dib cautiously approached, completely unsure of whatever was going on in front of him, " _So wait, what's happening?!_ "

They both looked down at him.

" _You're working **with** the alien?!! Did he do some kind of weird, evil hypnosis thing to you?! Is he holding you hostage?!!_", the child was flailing as he spoke.

Dib pinched the bridge of his nose, sighing at his younger self for what felt like the hundreth time in an hour. "No, look-", he took a deep inhale though his nose, "It's fine, alright? This Zim is on our side."

" _How do you **know** that?!_"

Dib knelt down so he was at eye level with the young Dib, "He- We- Look, if I explain too much that could mess something up, but trust me. He wouldn't have lived this long if he wasn't."

Zim let out an offened scoff, "As if you would _actually_ harm me at this point."

Dib turned to look up at Zim, "Watch your tone or I'll hurt you right now."

"'Watch your tone'.", Zim parroted back at him in a mocking way, "What are you, a parent?"

"Dealing with you feels like that sometimes."

"Hey!"

Dib stood back up, resting his arm on Zim's head, "If you don't want me to make fun of you, stop making it so easy to do." He booped Zim between the eyes where a nose should be, laughing as the alien swatted at his hand. He looked back down at his younger self, his best attempt at a reassuring smile on his face, "See? Harmless."

Zim tilted his head back and bit Dib's hand, an unnamused look on his face.

"Oh come on, can you at least _pretend_ to not be completely feral?!", Dib was trying to pry Zim off of his hand as his younger self looked on in confused horror.

Once Dib finally got Zim off, he smacked the snickering alien on the back of the head before folding his arms.

"Alright, so we need a plan for dealing with this. Getting into the house is probably our best bet here, even if what you had at this point isn't half as good as what we're used to."

"Zim could just steal the Voot, a market could yield better equipment."

"No. Aside from the fact that that would take way too long with the current Voot, do you _not_ remember the whole thing that happened at that park when people saw a quote 'five-foot tall irken out of uniform'? Especially with those heels, when you're closer to six feet, do you really think that could happen without the armada hearing about it?"

Zim brought a hand to his chin, "True, plus the Voot only has one chair, so it'd be a solo trip" 

While the two of them bounced ideas off of eachother, young Dib was trying to figure out if this was some kind of weird fever dream. First his older self suddenly came crashing into his room out of nowhere, and once he was sure it was him that was pretty cool. But now they were out in the woods and the older Zim was there, but appearantly he _isn't_ evil??? But he was still being an asshole? But future Dib was being one back to him?? And Zim _wasn't_ stabbing him for talking back???

The whole way they interacted was just... _weird_ to the child. Not to mention the fact that his older self told Zim he was wrong and the alien listened to him. The only thing keeping young Dib from having some kind of mental breakdown at that point was the fact that everything was moving _waayyy_ too fast for him to properly keep up with.

"Alright, so, at least for now, our best course of action is getting into the lab.", Dib said with he hands now on his hips.

Zim frowned a bit, bringing a hand to his chin, "That could be an issue, while Zim recalls the basic layout of the underground at this point, I can't actually remember where the security measures are."

"I think I had a drawing of the inside at this point from the few times I'd managed to get cameras in before you found them. We just need to get around pest Zim and we're good."

"You mean 'past', idiot.", Zim said with a small smirk.

"Oh right, my bad. You're still a pest."

Zim began playfully scratching at Dib's face and hissing, and Dib just laughed as he swatted the alien's hands away.

Young Dib felt like he was having a stroke.

The three of them made their way back to Dib's house to find the blueprints the human had at the time and form a proper plan. The older two got into Dib's room though the window, since Gaz was in the livingroom and none of them wanted to be the one that had to explain this to her.

Young Dib pretended he didn't see how Zim was holding his older self as they entered the window, willfully ignoring how natural the action seemed to be for the two of them.

Once they were inside, Dib started digging around on the desk for the paper, knocking over some energy drink cans and desperately trying to avoid touching the concearningly furry plate in the corner.

By the time Dib found what he was looking for, Zim was laying on his stomach on the bed and young Dib was doing his best to sit as far away from the alien as possible.

"S _o what's the plan? Breaking in, shooting Zim, and then running away with what you need?_ ", young Dib asked, excited that he was gonna be able to get into Zim's base.

"As funny as that would be,", Zim started, suprising the child, "sadly that isn't something that happens."

Dib snickered a bit at what Zim said as he struggled to read the paper in his hands,"Oh wow, you weren't kidding when you made me work on my blueprints. How did I even make this?"

" _Hey! I worked hard on that!_ ", young Dib whined, offended.

"Hard work hardly equals quality, smelly.", Zim scoffed, "All of Zim's projects at this time took weeks, sometimes months, and yet you still somehow manage to break it all in less than a day."

"Alot of your newer stuff has that issue too.", Dib said without looking up from the paper.

"That's because it all has your stupid input taken into account."

"If you don't want it don't ask, babe."

The room was silent for a moment, the child seeming to be the only one that actually picked up on that small, yet very important word tacked onto the end of that statement. " _... Did you just call him ' **babe** '?!_", young Dib asked, a newfound look of horror and confusion on his face.

Dib's eyes widened as he realized his mistake, and he very quickly tried to change the subject.

"OK SO,", Dib said, way too loud, "I'm pretty sure these are blind spots." Dib set the paper down on the bed in between young Dib and Zim, pointing at some circled bits, "If we stick to them, we should be able to get into the storage area pretty easilly. There's definately some differences between how the base is here and what I'm used to, but not enough that it should cause problems. We just have to get the stuff we need."

He paused for a second.

"Actually, wait, what _do_ we need? I know we need to replicate the portal kinda, but we need to figure out where we messed up originally and what we need to change to send us back."

Zim started to laugh, sitting up and folding his arms, "Of course it's up to Zim to do all the hard work. Since you took your time meeting up with me, I looked over the blueprints and figured out what went wrong and how to fix it."

"You have the blueprints with you?"

"Yes.", Zim's pak openned up and a metalic arm came out with the paper on it, "You complain about my 'hoarding issues' and yet, it comes in handy." 

Young Dib marveled at the paper in the alien's hands. It had a drawing of some kind of stargate looking thing, and writing in both english and irken. Some of the irken was written in a different colour than the rest with some things scribbled out, and the english looked worryingly similar to his own hand-writing.

Zim handed it to Dib, and kept talking as the human read it over, "Some of Zim's math from the beginning caused us both to make mistakes as the project continued. But, knowing that, I've figured out how to fix the problem."

Young Dib took in the sight of his older self appearantly reading _irken_ just fine, pinching himself in the arm to make sure he was actually awake still. "

Right, so we need something reflective as a frame, a node set, some tools, a medium power core and...", Dib squinted at the paper, "Doesn't your tablet work as a programming station?"

"I dropped it trying to keep you from falling."

"Right... so would a mirror work as the frame?"

"It has to be able to conduct electircity, _idiot_ , learn how to read."

" _What about the lake in the north part of town?_ ", young Dib asked, " _The one that connects to the river? The water there is always pretty clean, so it's pretty reflective._ "

Dib gave his younger self a thumbs up, "Good thinking! We'd just need to dam off the river mouth and that's perfect. Though we'd need to make sure Zim doesn't get wet."

"That's not an issue, I kept an obsessive amount of paste for-", Zim stopped for a second, glaring at the eager child trying to learn something about him, "an undisclosed anount of time since the wettening incident. Nice try tiny-Dib, figure it out on your own."

Young Dib let out an annoyed whine, only for his older self to cut in before he had a chance tosay anything, "He's right, we really need to be careful with what-"

" _Alright, that's it! I've had it with... whatever this is!_ ", young Dib interupted him, jumping up in frustration and standing on his bed, " _This is insane! You two getting along is already weird enough, but the way you interact with eachother is just... **ugh**!_" The child put his hands on the side of his head, shouting at them, " _First of all, Zim is actually being... **civil** , for the most part. He's admitting that **he** messed up and listening when we talk to him, he hasn't tried to **kill** me or anything and he's just laying down on **my** bed like he's used to it! And you!_"

He pointed at his older self, " _What's the hell is even you're deal?! You can **read in irken** , you called him **BABE** , the first thing you did when you saw him was hug him! What kind of future are you two from?!?_"

"Appearantly he didn't see the kiss.", Zim muttered in irken.

"Really not the time, Zim.", Dib replied while he tried to figure out what he should say to his younger self.

" _You can understand him **speaking** in it too?!?_", young Dib had a whole new set of emotions displayed on his face, none of them good.

Dib raised his hands up defensively, "Look, like I said we really can't-"

" _No, this isn't a 'we' thing. I asked you. Not **Zim**._", the child spat out Zim's name when he said it.

Dib sighed, "Alright, fine. I don't want to say anything that could change the future, at least not intentionally. Is that a better answer?"

" _No! It's not even an answer!_ "

Dib was starting to get frustrated now too, "Well then what-?!" 

The bedroom door slammed open, and Gaz stomped in, " _Dib I swear, if you don't shut up I'll-_ "

She abruptly stopped, openning one of her eyes to get a better look at the situation in front of her. Everyone froze, not really sure what to do next.

Zim brought a hand to his face and sighed. He lifted the other hand and gave a weak wave in her direction, "Hello, Gaz-sibling."

" _Don't talk to my sister, you alien freak!_ ", young Dib directed his anger at Zim.

"Oh my god can you _please_ stop yelling?! That's the whole reason she came up here!", Dib said to his younger self, now also yelling out of frustration.

" _You're yelling too!_ "

"Only because-!"

" _I'm not dealing with whatever this is, just be quiet or you will **pay**. Got it?_", Gaz interupted.

"Got it."

" _Got it._ "

Both Dibs answered at the same time, wimpering slightly.

Gaz left again, slamming the door behind her. Zim started cackling after a moment of silence, Dib put a hand to his face and groaned, and young Dib was trying to think of what he should do next.

"Alright,", Dib said as he sighed, looking his younger self in the eyes, "I really can't explain why we're like this with risking seriously messing up the future, and I don't want to change anything about it." He placed a hand on young Dib's shoulder, "Please trust me though, it'll make sense with time."

" _... Fine. But I'm only dropping it for now._ ", young Dib crossed his arms and plopped back down onto the bed with a _hmph_ , side-eyeing Zim.

Dib looked at the old alarm clock next to the bed, "It's around two thirty, so we should probably get started with this. The sooner we get what we need, the sooner we can be done with this."

Zim stood up and stretched, "Agreed. Since your sister knows we're here now, no need to use the window again."

Dib raised an eyebrow at him, "I mean I guess but is that really a good-"

"Zim is not scaling the side of this house again today."

Dib sighed and raised his hands in defeat, "Alright, fine."

Both of the Dibs rushed downstairs, each yelling a quick "Bye Gaz" as they ran out the door.

Zim walked in after they were already outside, pinching the space between his eyes.

" _So what's the deal here?_ ", Gaz asked the alien, not looking away from her game.

"Zim made a mistake and we got send backwards through time.", Zim said as he rested his arms on the back of the couch, "Sadly, your brother is still a complete idiot eight years from now."

" _Makes sense. You still trying to kill him?_ "

"No, unfortunately. I really want to sometimes. The regret wouldn't be worth it, though." Zim stood up straight, sighing as he looked at the open door, "It would probably be a good idea for Zim to catch up with them before they get hurt, they're planning on break into my base and that will not go over well."

Gaz growled a bit as she died in her game, " _Yeah, get out so I can focus._ "

Zim waved behind him as he left, not looking back at her, "See you again eventually."

" _Whatever._ "

The three of them stood behind the tree across the street from Zim's house, preparing to start with their plan.

"Alright, the first step is to get past the lawn gnomes, then we just need to get to an elevator and avoid cameras.", Dib was peeking out at the house, clearly having too much fun with this.

" _We also have to be careful of Gir, he's probably in the livingroom. Plus, Zim's weird house computer could let him know we're there._ ", young Dib was also looking out from behind the tree, vibrating with excitement.

"Comp definately won't be a problem, unless we annoy him he won't care enough to actually do anything unless Zim tells him to. Gir is... it's like a fifty-fifty chance he'll be an issue. Most of the time he'll just be distracted with the tv and not actually care if anyone comes in."

" _Ok, but what do we do if he **does** care?_"

"Um...", Dib brought a hand to his chin, thinking, "I mean, snacks usually get him to shut up, we could probably just throw something from the kitchen at him?"

As the Dibs talked, Zim got progressively more tense and anxious as he realized just how poorly thrown together this plan actually was.

"I think,", Zim started, prompting the Dibs to turn and look at him, "it would be better for Zim to go in alone. The younger one already trusts me so there would be no sneaking required that way."

Dib could tell immediately that Zim was stressed based on his posture, and came over to put a hand on his shoulder, "We both need to be there to make sure we get-"

"I would feel better about the whole situation if you stayed away from the base.", he paused and looked down at the once again confused young Dib, " _Both_ of you. Given how violent I used to be, it would be safer for you to remain outside."

"But-"

"No 'buts' on this, Dib."

Dib looked Zim in the eye for a second before sighing, a soft smile on his face, "Fine, you win. But I'm writing you a list so you don't forget anything."

The alien rolled his eyes, "Zim has the blueprints, there's no need to-"

"Zim, with how nosy you are, there's no way he's not gonna try to get a look at that. What do you think he's gonna do if he sees something that has english on it in _my_ handwriting? I know damn well you had that menorized my this point."

Zim crossed his arms and glared at him, "So what, a smaller version of that is going to deter him?"

"Just give me a stickie note and a pen, space-bug."

Zim grumbled as he got the pad of stickies and a pen out of his pak, chucking them at Dib. After a few minutes, Dib threw the items right back, hitting Zim in the face and making young Dib laugh a bit.

Zim examined the note as Dib put his hands on his hips, "I know you still think my irken lettering is sloppy, but it's better than nothing."

Zim squinted exaggeratedly at the note while he read it, "Zim supposes it's legible enough, you're practicing some more when this is over."

"Don't worry, next time you sleep I can practice by writing curse words on your face."

"I'll tell Gir to scream if he sees you doing that."

"He's easilly bought and you know it. All I have to do is give him a box of poptarts and he'll ignore your orders in a heartbeat."

They stood there silently for a second before Dib sighed, "Better get this over with, huh?"

"Yes, the sooner the better."

"Right. Just go in and get what we need, and _please_ be careful. I seriously doubt our phones are gonna work here, so if something goes wrong I won't have any way to know. I'm going to go to the lake with mini-Dib and wait for you there.", he grabbed Zim's hand and squeezed it a bit, "If you don't show up before sundown, I'll think something happened to you, so don't keep me waiting alright?"

Zim looked him in the eye for a moment before looking away, squeezing his hand in return, "Stupid. It's an insult that you think something can go wrong with such a stupid list of things."

Dib smiled as he began walking away, his younger self stopping to glare at Zim for a moment before running to catch up with him.

Zim entered the house and removed his disguise, shoving the bits into his pak as he made his way to the irratatingly _tiny_ elevator in the kitchen. He cursed as he crammed himself inside, making his way down to the lab.

Bringing the Dibs along would not have worked out well, not with how chaotic they were and especially not with how violent the smaller ones could get. Zim had been an absolute goblin at this point, and Dib was... well Dib, but even more unpredictable and with absolutely no sense of self preservation.

Inside the main chamber of the lab, young Zim was hard at work on a death-machine. Not wanting to deal the inevitable headache interacting with his younger self would generate, Zim made his way to the storage area to collect what he needed. After a bit, all he needed was to grab a few tools and he had everything. He made his way back to the main lab and-

" _Zim sees you have returned!_ ", young Zim leaned back from his project, lifting his welding mask, " _Have you completed your secret, futurey mission of doom?_ "

Zim cringed, he'd been so focussed that he forgot about the tiny menace in there with him, "Not yet, I required some materials."

" _Ah, well you obviously know where everything it. Just take what you need._ "

Young Zim placed the mask back over his face and went back to his work. Despite knowing it probably wasn't the best idea, Zim walked over to get a better look at what the smaller one was working on. "Which death machine is this one?", he asked.

Young Zim leaded back again, his antennae low and a confused expression on his face, " _'Which one'? There are others after this one? Does this one fail?_ "

"Most things fail, not just things you make. The best way to deal with it is to improve upon what you did correct until there's no chance for failure."

Young Zim scrunched his face up, " _But there's no room for failure in our mission! What would the Tallest think of such a thing?!_ "

Zim scowled at the mention of the Tallest, but he quickly hid it so his younger self didn't see, "Well... mistakes are an important step in learning and improvement. Don't think of it as failure, just an unexpected step in your plan!"

Young Zim brought his hand to his chin, thinking about what he'd just been told, " _Hmm... you raise a fair point. Zim supposes it makes sense._ "

They didn't really say anything else to eachother after that, young Zim got back to his machine and the older one just got what he needed and left.

As the Dibs made their way towards the lake, young Dib had a very obvious 'I have alot of questions' look on his face. Dib sighed as he looked down at his younger self, "If you have stuff you want to ask me, go ahead. I'll tell you what I can, but don't be suprised if I don't answer most of it."

Young Dib took in a deep breath before belting out a string of questions at an extremely fast pace. " _Why do you know irken? Why do you and Zim act like that with eachother? Why did you just listen to him when he told you not to go in when he could be planning something?!_ ", he paused to take in a breath, " _Why-_ "

"One at a time, please, I still have a headache.", Dib interupted, immediately regretting even saying anything.

" _Alright then, answer the first one; why do you know irken?_ "

"Zim made me learn it."

" _And you just went 'ok sure, teach me your language, space boy! Sounds fun!'?!_ "

"I mean, it was more of a power move on my part? He was being smug about how 'inferior' I was, and how 'humans have such a hard time learning their own languages! You couldn't even begin to comprehend one from another species!' So I learned enough of it in like three months that he shut up."

Young Dib stopped as he processed that answer, caught off guard by how well his older self could mimic Zim's mannerisms when mocking the alien. " _Ok, but what lead to that?_ "

"A bunch of stuff. Keep walking."

" _But-_ "

"Remember I said I couldn't give some answers?"

Young Dib groaned as he started going again, irritated. " _Fine. Why aren't you suspicious that Zim is up to something?! He told us not to go into his base and you just... listened to him without even trying to fight on it!_ "

"He's always up to something. I just seriously doubt he's going to be as much of a nuisance as he usually is with something like this."

" _And you're just... ok with him doing that?!?_ "

Dib shrugged. "I mean, if he does something too bad I can just put some icecubes on his while he sleeps or something."

" _Oh, that's another thing! Zim can sleep?_ "

"He doesn't actually have to from what I know. He _can_ sleep, but he only actually needs to if he hasn't eaten for a while. Otherwise he just does it becuase he feels like it. He also has a 'rest mode' he can go into, but that's honestly just him closing his eyes and sitting still for a while."

Young Dib had gears visably turning in his head as Dib talked, " _When **does** he sleep?_"

"Unless he hits the point where he needs to, he won't. Not unless he's comfortable. It actually scared me the first time I saw him do it, I thought he died on top of m-", Dib coughed, interupting himself, "But uh, I doubt it's something you can take advanatage of. Zim didn't really stop seeing Earth as a 'hostile enemy planet' for a while, so I don't think you'll actually manage to catch him doing it."

Young Dib continued asking questions, all of them getting extremely vague answers, but it seemed to satisfy him enough. 

By the time they got to the lake, Dib had been asked enough stuff that he was starting to seriously consider telling his younger self about some of the things him and Zim had done that he _knew_ would make the child shut up from the shock.

Dib sighed in relief once they arrived, he thankfully had the excuse of needing to examine the lake as a way to end the line of questioning (for now). He walked up to the edge of the water, taking in their surroundings.

The lake itself had a diameter of maybe eighteen yards or so, and was definately much cleaner than any other bodies of water he could think of nearby. The area around it was wooded, with various breaks in the trees along the edges. There was a small overhang opposite the river mouth that was maybe five or six feet taller than the surrounding bits of land, portruding a few feet forward over the lake as well.

He grabbed a rock off the ground and threw it at the water. The clear reflection of the sky was breifly disrupted by the splash and gentle ripples, but quickly went back to it's peaceful mimic of the atmosphere above as the rock dissapeared into the fairly shallow water.

"This should be perfect, nice job picking it. All we have to do is block off the river to make it a contained body." Dib moved away from the water's edge, sitting down against a tree with his arms behind his head, "We can make Zim do that, though. He can just use his pak legs to cut down some trees or something."

Young Dib had a look of horror on his face, " _Those are strong enough to do that?!?_ "

"Oh, right, he hasn't started using them on you yet, has he?"

" ** _YET?!_** "

"Yeah... I don't actually remember when he starts using them, but do your best to avoid them. They really hurt."

Young Dib swollowed the newly formed lump in his throat, " _N-noted._ " 

They sat there in silence for a while, conversation dying out pretty quickly as young Dib finally ran out of questions he thought he could get answers to. Eventually, they were both startled by a sudden crash from behind. They jumped up in alarm, causing Zim to laugh as he stood over the pile of stuff he'd just dramatically dropped on the ground.

Dib put a hand over his heart to try and calm down as he glared at the alien, "Jesus chist Zim, don't break the equipment!"

The alien stuck his tounge out, still laughing as he threw a sleeping bag at Dib's face and knocked the human over. "Zim figures we will be here overnight, and that's better than you sleeping on some leaves or something.", the alien said as he crossed his arms, looking quite proud of himself for thinking of it.

"Sleep is the last thing I'm worried about right now.", Dib said as he set the bag to the side. He looked at the setting sun and then back to Zim, "The sooner we get this done the better. Did you get any flashlights so we can see what we're doing?"

"You mean so _you_ can see what you're doing?"

"Zim, I won't hesitate to throw you in the lake." Zim rolled his eyes and threw a flashlight with a hip fastener at Dib's chest.

"Thank you.", Dib hummed out as he stood and set the flashlight up on his side.

Zim got the blueprints out of his pak as the Dibs made their way over, "Take your thanks and choke on it."

Dib rolled his eyes, "Whatever. First order of business is blocking the river mouth so the lake is contained. Could you do that while I sort everything out?"

Zim rolled his eyes as one of his pak legs suddenly shot out and chopped down a nearby tree, causing young Dib to fall backwards in fear as the older one just sighed.

"Please refrain from intentionally scaring me, you cause enough trauma without doing that."

Zim had a fake look of innocence on his face, "Oh, whatever do you mean? Zim is only doing what you asked of him."

"You're lucky I don't have the spray bottle with me."

"I thought I threw that away."

Dib sat down on the ground again as he started sorting through the pile of stuff, "Every time one goes missing, two more take it's place."

" _He lets you spray him with water?!_ ", young Dib asked, now also sitting down to watch Dib work.

"It is very obviously not something I 'let' him do, and yet he still does.", Zim cut another tree down, using the other three pak legs to carry it.

Dib chuckled a bit, "He's just like a big, grumpy cat. Right down to the t-"

Dib was cut off by a pak leg suddenly at his throat. Zim was trying to hide a blush as he hissed a bit, "If you wish to retain your vocal chords, Zim suggests you talk about something else."

Young Dib's newfound panic from Zim's sudden shift in demeanor turned back into confusion as he watched his older self casually shove the _incredibly sharp and dangerous_ limb away, barely even acknowledging it.

"Use your words next time, Zim."

"That was much faster, and more efficient."

"Just get the lake blocked up."

The alien put the leg away, and he and Dib continued working like that whole interaction hadn't happened.

Nothing of note happened for the next few hours, young Dib just watched himself sort thought the equipment and tried to guess what each thing was. A bit after the sun went down he yawned, drawing Dib's attention.

"I think you should head home for now."

" _What? Why?_ "

"Cause it's dark out, and Gaz will be pissed if you aren't back. Besides, you look pretty tired."

The child yawned again and crossed his arms, " _You're one to talk. You look like a racoon with how dark your eye bags are._ "

"At least I have an excuse to be tired outside of being like thirteen and having a bedtime still."

" _Ouch, I was just making a joke. But fine, I'll go home. For **now**. I'll come back later, though._"

"As long as you at least take a nap or something first."

Dib continued to silently prepare their equipment for a while after that.

Eventually, Zim came over and squatted next to him, "The dam is built and the lake is ready for us to begin installing the nodes."

Dib yawned a bit, "Great. Everything here is basically ready."

"Zim sees that you sent your younger self home."

"Yeah, he looked pretty tired so I told him to go take a nap."

Dib yawned again, and Zim looked at him for a moment. "You look fairly tired as well. You've been awake for almost thirty hours again."

"You need to stop keeping track of that."

"Well _someone_ has to, since you don't seem to think your health is important."

Dib pushed Zim lightly, causing the alien to fall over. Zim glared as the human laughed and yawned again. He adjusted himself so he could finish what Dib was working on, taking the object he was holding.

"Hey!", Dib protested as he was gently being shoved backwards.

"Don't 'hey' at me! You need sleep!"

"I'm fine, really! We'll get this done faster if we both keep working, I can sleep when we get back."

"You're more likely to make mistakes when you're tired. It's better you get some sleep now so you can do the coding tomorrow. Zim will begin setting up the nodes."

Dib sighed, knowing Zim wasn't going to give up, "Fine, but you need to wake me up after a while, I don't want you to have to work by yourself for too long."

He tossed Zim's wig to the side, gently scratching the alien between the antennae and earning some quiet purring in response.

"Go get some sleep, Dib."

The human got up and stretched as he made his way over to where Zim had appearantly already set up the sleeping bag for him, "Goodnight, Zim."

"Make sure you get enough rest."

Dib gave a thumbs up in Zim's general direction before laying down and almost immediately passing out.

Zim worked on installing the nodes around the perimeter of the lake for the next few hours, getting halfway done when he decided to take a break. Dib would probably yell at him if he didn't stop and rest for at least a few minutes, and he didn't want to hear it later.

He walked over to the area where Dib was resting, stopping to look down at the sleeping human. Despite the circumstances, Dib had somehow managed to get fairly comfortable and was peacefully asleep. Zim sat down next to him and messed with his hair for a bit, gently purring as he did it. Eventually, he decided to lay down, resting his head on Dib's stomach.

He laid there like that for a while, just purring and listening to Dib's breathing, until he heard something move nearby. Zim had his disguise off at this point, so he was fairly cautious at that moment.

He relaxed again when he heard the amusing sounds of young Dib talking to himself in a manner the child thought was quiet.

He closed his eyes again, not purring anymore, but also not moving from his spot. The sound of a branch snapping caused him to laugh slightly, "You aren't sneaky, you know. I can hear you moving around."

The child came into view from behind the tree he'd been watching from, a confused look on his face, " _What are you doing???_ "

"None of your business. Didn't he tell you to go home and sleep?"

The child crossed his arms and huffed a bit, " _I came back to make sure **you** weren't doing anything evil! And then I see you play with his hair and lay down on him! What-?!_"

Zim sat up almost immediately when young Dib started raising his voice, making a quieting motion with his arms, "Lower your volume! He barely gets enough sleep as is, don't wake him up."

" _Yeah, that's another thing I don't get!_ ", young Dib said, quieter now, " _He's not even awake! And you're still acting like- not like you! What are you planning, Zim?!_ "

"Zim's only 'plan' currently is to allow my Dib-beast to rest peacfully so he doesn't get sick again. And you shouting in close proximity to him is hindering that!"

" _You're doing it again!_ "

"Oh, doing _what_?"

" _Acting like you 'care' so you can trick him! He isn't even awake so why are you-?!_ "

He cut himself off as the older Dib began to stir slightly, causing both Zim and the child to stop their silent screaming match for a moment. Dib rolled over in his sleep, scooting forward a bit and grabbing Zim around the waist. Zim looked down at the arms now around him and sighed, placing his hand over one of Dibs.

" _I don't trust you Zim._ ", the child said after looking at them in silence for just a beat too long, " _Just because he does doesn't mean I ever will._ "

Zim scoffed and rolled his eyes, doing his best to keep his purring quiet enough that young Dib couldn't hear it, "It doesn't matter if you don't, you'd be even dumber than I thought if you did. The Zim you have isn't worth trusting yet, anyways. He's still an immature gremlin with an ego the size of the sun."

The child just looked at him in confusion after he said that. Zim leaned back into Dib slightly, sitting there like that for a few more minutes before carefully pulling away and getting back to work. He finished setting up the nodes by the time the sun came up, all while young Dib watched and pretended he wasn't interested in what the alien was doing.

An hour or so after the sun was up, Dib was woken up with a poke to his face from Zim. He swatted at the alien's hand and rolled over, only for his younger self to betray him and also poke him. Dib sat up and stretched, sliding his glasses on his face as he looked around at all the installed nodes around the edge or the lake.

"I told you to wake me up so I could help you with those, y'know. Did you even take any breaks?"

"Of course Zim took a break! You would have whined otherwise.", the alien said, rolling his eyes.

" _Yeah, he was-_ ", young Dib cut himself off at the sight of a pak leg slowly being release from Zim's back, " _He was just sitting against a tree for a while._ "

Zim quickly hid away the leg again and whistled innocently as the older Dib turned around to look at him.

"What I did durring my break is irrelivant. We need to get the portal finished.", the alien said, trying to change the subject.

Dib sighed as he stood up, "Right." He walked over toward the lake's edge, looking over one of the nodes Zim had installed. "Did you get the depth measurements yet?"

"Of course not, that would involve getting into the water. You waited for Zim to block off the river, so I am returning the favor.", the alien said with a shit-eating grin.

"Oh, don't be so kind,", Dib's voice was dripping with sarcasm, "I might just have to drag you in with me."

Zim tossed a stick he'd marked with various measurements at Dib before scurrying back out of grabbing distance. Dib sighed as he took of his shoes and coat, setting the contents of his pockets on top of the coat. He rolled up his pantlegs before walking over and whacking Zim with the stick. After that he got into the water and began taking measurements.

He yelled the various numbers in Zim's general direction, getting irratated as his clothes were now thouroghly soaked. Once Dib was back on dry land, he unrolled his now soaked pantlegs and tried to wring out some of the water from the lower part of his shirt.

"You know, you could have just taken those off.", Zim said, not looking up from the programming station.

"Zim, there's a child right there.", Dib said, gesturing to his younger self, "Me or not, I'm not about to get naked."

Young Dib let out a concearned gasp, " _Me being here is the only thing stopping you from being **NAKED** in front of **ZIM**?!! And I'm not a child, I'm thirteen. I'm a teenager._"

Dib rolled his eyes. "Not literally naked, just like, in my underwear. And yes, you are in fact a child."

Zim snickered a bit, saying something just loud enough for the younger one to hear, "It's not like I haven't seen him naked before."

" ** _WAIT WHAT?!?_** "

Dib pinched the bridge of his nose, "Zim!"

The alien was laughing even more now. "What? All I said was the truth!"

"Truth or not, now isn't the time! What did you tell him?!"

"None of your business."

"That is _literally_ me!"

"Then it's your fault for not remembering, now get over here and start with the programming while Zim double checks all of the nodes."

Dib sighed as he made his way up onto the overhang to mess with the programming station, flicking a bit of water at Zim as he sat down next to him. The alien retaliated by tugging on Dib's hair scyth as he stood up and walked away.

Once Zim was what the child deemed a safe distance away, young Dib moved to sit next to his older self, " _Why has he seen you naked?!! Aren't you worried he's gonna cut you open and steal your organs?!_ "

Dib rolled his eyes as he continued to type, "Can you calm down please?"

" _He's seen our naked body and you're telling me to 'calm down'?!_ "

"Not yours yet. Don't worry, it happens when you're alot older."

" _The fact that it happens **at all** is a reason to worry!_"

"Trust me, Zim seeing me without clothes is fairly tame compared to some of the other stuff that happens over the next few years."

" _What's **that** supposed to mean?!_"

Dib's cheeks went bright red as he realized what he just said. He put a hand on the back of his head and looked to the side, "Oh um, y'know j-just stuff in general."

His younger self raised an eyebrow at him before looking to see how far away Zim was from them. Even though the alien was a fair distance away, the child still lowered his voice a bit more, " _When I came back here earlier, I saw him play with your hair. And then he was laying down on you while you were alseep._ "

Dib laughed a bit, blushing slightly, "Ah, yeah, he does that. It's actually really good for insomnia."

Young Dib looked horrified at how nonchalantly his older self reacted to this, " _You **know** he's doing it and you don't **care**?!_"

"I mean, not really? Doesn't really hurt anything does it?"

The child was about to rebut with something before pausing for a second. " _Wait, if you know he does it, why didn't he want me to say anything?_ "

Dib just shrugged, "Honestly, at this point I've stopped asking questions. He is how he is."

" _But-_ ", young Dib stopped talking and just tried to wrap his head around literally anything he'd just been told, not liking any of it. He was pretty sure he just ends up going insane at some point, it would honestly explain almost everything that he'd seen in the last 24 hours.

Dib looked over at his younger self, visably seeing the gears turning in his head. By this point, he was almost certain that the reason he didn't actually remember most of this was probably large amounts of repression and denial.

By sundown, everything was set and ready to go. Dib had finished the programming, and Zim had given it a look as well to make sure the human hadn't messed up at all.

They switched on the power core and watched as the portal started to form, starting at the middle of the lake and spreading out as the whole surface came to life.

Dib put his hands on his hips, a large grin forming on his face, "Alright! We did it! Now we just-"

He was cut off by the ground suddenly starting to shake. It was accompanied by a loud thudding noise that got progressively louder as the shaking intensified. A path was forcefully being made in the trees, and soon the source of the disturbance made himself known.

" _Foolish human! You thought you could hide from **Zim**?! Even out in the tree area you are not safe!!!_", young Zim was boasting from the top of his completed death machine.

The robot was a large metalic thing in a similar shape to a mechsuit of some kind. Both of it's 'arms' ended in electicity fueled cannons with very obvious and visible screens showing their charge status on the sides. Young Zim's eyes were closed so he was yet to notice the older two.

Said older two had their hands to their faces.

Dib was doing his best to stiffle a laugh, "Oh my god, I already hate this."

"How do you think I feel?!", Zim replied, fighting off a headache.

The younger Dib was already in Earth defender mode, not missing a beat, " _Zim! I don't know what you have planned, but I'll put a stop to it! You'll never take the Earth!_ "

" _Oh really? How can you be so sure when facing a robot that's almost as large as your head?_ "

"My head's not big!"

" _My head's not big!_ "

Both the Dibs screamed up at the alien in unison.

Young Zim finally openned his eyes to actually look at the situation going on in front of him, " _Eh? Why is there two of you? And why is the other one so **tall**?!_"

"Still gonna say I was wrong about being the smarter one?", Dib asked his Zim with a smug grin.

Zim raked his hand down his face, "It's not stupidity, just ignorance. Be lucky this is your only encounter."

" _Eh? The other Zim is here as well?!_ ", young Zim said, finally noticing his future self, " _Wait, are you some sort of trick designed by the Dib?! How dare you trick the mighty Zim?!_ "

Zim got in front of the Dibs, standing between them and his younger self, "While you were indeed tricked, it was not by them. Zim was acting solo in that case. The fact that you didn't notice something was up is your own fault."

" _Lies! You will pay for daring to trick me!_ ", the young Zim pressed a few buttons in the cockpit of his machine, the arm cannons now pointed at the group and powered on.

Zim exteneded his pak legs as he ran towards his younger self. He used the legs to redirect the upper half of the robot away from them and towards the trees as a large shot was discharged, the trees now in it's sights reduced to nothing more than ash as they were hit. Young Zim growled under his, angry that his attack had been so easily negated.

The older one quickly jumped backwards, landing near the Dibs again while never taking his eyes off of his younger self. "The arms take aproximately two minutes to recharge."

"Alright, what do we do before that happens, then?", Dib asked, desperately wracking his brain to try and remember how this played out.

"The 'we' in that statement consists of the child and myself, you're getting into the portal."

"No! I'm not-"

"Zim does not want to have to worry about protecting both of you. Your younger self will be safe, I promise."

"But-"

" _Dib_. Please, I don't want anything to happen to you. I will go in as well shortly."

Dib looked at him with concearn, then at the portal before sighing, "You're cleaning the lab after you get back."

He jumped in, leaving Zim alone with their younger counterparts.

" _Oh great, one got away!_ ", young Zim grumbled as he very impatiently waited for his guns to finish charging.

Zim looked down at young Dib, "I have a plan, however there's not enough time this recharge to explain it. Can I trust you to stay alive until he manages to drain it again?"

Young Dib nodded, " _I've lived this long, no way he's taking me out at this point._ "

"Good. This round of shots is going to be smaller and less focussed, but there's going to be more of it from both sides. Zim will do his best to attract the majority of his attention, however you need to make an active effort to not get hit. Try to stay as far away from the portal as possible."

" _I'm only listening to you until I figure out a better plan, space boy._ "

Zim waved his hand as he got ready to charge, "Yeah, yeah, whatever. Just stay alive and don't let him shoot the portal."

A ding from the machine and a pleased noise from the young invader was the signal they needed to start moving. Zim ran up to the robot like last time, while young Dib ran along the tree line. Young Zim tried to focus on the child first, however his older self jumping up onto one of the cannons was pretty distracting.

" _You! How dare you! If you were truely Zim you would be assisting in destroying that disgusting worm boy!_ ", young Zim got his own pak legs out, setting the machine to auto-aim as he set his sights on himself, " _The mission is to capture this planet for the Tallest, and the Dib-worm gets in the way of that!_ "

Zim blocked an attack from his younger self, annoyed by the raw feral energy the smeet posessed, "The 'mission' has changed for me."

" _Nonsense! That's the only mission an invader can have!_ "

They exchanged a few blows, neither of them landing any hits that would matter as their paks healed the damage. Young Dib was doing his best to watch the irkens fight while he avoided the shots still being sent his way by the death machine. The cannons were almost empty, and young Zim was starting to show signs of exhaustion. A buzz from the machine signaled the need for a recharge, and Zim kicked his younger self backwards before jumping away again towards young Dib.

Zim picked young Dib up, running back towards the overhang as he explained his plan, "The robot will short circuit when it hits water, however that knowledge is fairly useless with the lake still acting as a portal. Zim is going to throw you-"

Young Dib started wiggling in Zim's grip, trying to get free, " _Oh no! No, no, no! You are NOT-_ "

Zim's grip on him tightened, "Shut up and listen, will you? Zim is going to throw you, _safely_ , towards the dam. Once the robot recharges, my younger self will run directly towards me at the water's edge. When that happens, I'm going to jump into the portal and you're going to immediately break the dam. This will revert it back to water, and the death machine will be ruined. He'll also get burned and run back home."

Young Dib was silent for a moment, contemplating, " _How do you know that's what's gonna happen?_ "

"The crushing, moist defeat is the only solid part of this that I remember."

" _And how do I know you're telling the truth?_ "

"You don't, however you aren't left with many options currently."

" _... Fine. But if you're lying to me, I'll make sure you-_ "

"Yes, yes, autopsy tables and death. Y'know, after five years that got pretty boring to hear."

" _I thought you were from eight ye-_ "

"There isn't time for this!", Zim screamed as he threw young Dib towards the river mouth.

Once he saw the child land safely, he turned back in the direction of his younger self.

" _You aided the other one in escape as well?!! Zim is going to turn you into a pile of goo!_ ", young Zim was pulling at his antennae in anger as he screamed.

The death machine made the same ding as before, and young Zim immediately set it to full throttle forwards. Once it was at the right level of closeness, Zim turned and jumped into the portal, nodding at young Dib as he fell in.

Zim woke up face first on the floor of his lab, his current lab, surrounded by debris and various bits of rubble from the portal malfunctioning. He sat up and looked over to see Dib unconcious on the floor nearby. He gently picked the human up, checking him for injuries.

He was alright, at least outwardly. Any other types of injury could wait until later, after they'd both had some rest. He looked around the room, exhaustion turning to annoyance as he looked at the destroyed portal frame. The lab being a mess wasn't that big of a deal, he could just ask the computer to clean it for him, but the frame had taken two months to complete and it was definately beyond any point of recovery.

Dib adjusted in Zim's grip, wrapping his arms around the alien's neck and quelling the anger that had been building. Zim just sighed as he made his way to the elevatior and up to the bedroom he'd originally put in for just Dib that had become their shared resting area by this point.

The portal frame was another thing that could wait until later, no point in getting upset over it at that point anyways.

He carefully removed Dib's arms from around him, earning quiet protests from the still basically unconcious human. Zim removed the incredibly unconfortable disguise he'd still been wearing, tossing the bits at the wall before climbing into the bed next to Dib and wrapping his arms around his human. Dib returned the motion, and they both ended up falling asleep.

**Author's Note:**

> yeehaw wow that's long! hope it's alright, had alot of fun redoing it :>


End file.
